“This year's Best Practical FX in a Feature goes toBook of Monsters from director Stewart Sparke! There's a whole range of decapitations, head squishings, torso rippings, body splittings, finger severings, and even larvae birthing evil lawn gnomes. And the creature design/costumes are impressively elaborate. Although, now, every time I see that bony deer thing on the Masked Singer commercial I think of Book of Monsters.”

We are pleased to announce that Book of Monsters won the award for Best International Feature at the Spooky Empire Film Festival 2018! Director Stewart Sparke and Lead Actress Lyndsey Craine were in attendance for the screening and to receive the award.

Spooky Empire's Horror Film Festival had an incredible turnout, and we can’t thank the attendees and filmmakers enough who made it so. We also wanted to thank our sponsor ihorror.com. Some of the highlights included; Bill Moseley introducing our late night screening of Crepitus and staying until 1:30 in the morning to do a Q & A with the filmmakers, Actress Lyndsey Craine explaining how fun it is to kill Monsters (puppets), Dublin Filmmaker Damian Draven flying out all this way to share his love of Edgar Allan Poe and screen his adaptation of The Raven, and first time director; eighty year old (that’s not a typo) Tony Schweikle telling our audience it’s never too late to follow your dreams.We also wanted to thank our amazing panelists. Visual Effects Producer Dean Lyon, Producer Lou Simon, Author and Filmmaker Jacqueline Journey, Director Brendan Rogers, Producer Alea Figueroa, Composer Karl Anderson, as well as Filmmakers Brian Rosenthal, Dirk Sholar, and Brian Mills.Congrats to all our winners.Best Short Film: “THE RECKONING OF DARKNESS” - Director Christopher KulikowskiBest Feature: “Crepitus” - Director Haynze WhitmoreBest International Film: “Book of Monsters” – Director Stewart SparkeBest Special Effects: “I Am the Doorway” – Director Simon PearceAudience Choice: “Girl #2” – Director David JefferyFlorida Spotlight: “Mr. Facey” – Director Austin Maxwell

Director Stewart Sparke and Lead Actress Lyndsey Craine were in attendance for the screening and to receive the award

Dark Rift Film’s Book of Monsters has been nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Actress (Lyndsey Craine) and Best Practical FX at PDXtreme - Portland Underground Film Fest 2019. Directed by Stewart Sparke and written by Paul Butler, Book of Monsters is a horror comedy feature about a group of girls who must fight off a horde of monsters at an eighteenth birthday party.

"Book of monsters is a Fantastic Love Letter to old school 80’s horror that blends into a modern theme with a stellar cast, Fun kills and INCREDIBLE Creatures that are designed and made with incredible practical effects. I am preying they continue the story with not only a sequel but maybe a TV show too. 4.5/5 Arguably one of The Best Films of This years FrightFest" - http://thekillerspotlight.com/2018/08/25/book-of-monsters-review/

"There are monsters galore in director Stewart Sparke's follow up to THE CREATURE BELOW, which was a great little micro-budget British Lovecraftian horror picture of a couple of years ago. This one has more money, more production value, and a lot more monsters. It's also a lot lighter in tone with our central character's 18th birthday party being the scene for a monster rally that only she can sort out because her mum was some kind of monster slayer. Fun, bouncy and utterly charming, with all the monster stuff being real in camera effects, BOOK OF MONSTERS means Stewart Sparke and his team stay firmly on my radar to see what they all do next." - https://johnlprobert.blogspot.com/2018/08/frightfest-2018-day-three-saturday.html

"A film called Book of Monsters is obviously going to stand or fall on the quality of its malevolent menagerie and in that respect, Sparke scores very highly, with a number of original, creepy-looking creatures specially created for the film, using practical special effects. He also throws in some old favourites for good measure, with some sharp-teethed garden gnomes that come to life, allowing for a few knowing Gremlins references (gnome in a microwave and so on)..." - http://www.nerdly.co.uk/2018/08/30/frightfest-2018-book-of-monsters-review/

"Dread Central Presents is incredibly excited to announce that we’ve acquired worldwide rights to Stewart Sparke’s Book of Monsters! The film had its world premiere earlier today at Arrow Video FrightFest to a sold-out audience.

We’ll be revealing our release strategy over the coming months but right now now we’re just so thrilled to finally announce that we’re bringing you this gore-heavy, practical FX-driven, party extravaganza!

Director Stewart Sparke explains, “It’s an incredible honor to be with the Dread Central Presents team. It’s more than we ever could have hoped for and we can’t wait to bring Book of Monsters to audiences all over the world!” - https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/281654/dread-central-presents-were-opening-a-book-of-monsters/

From the same creative team – director Stewart Sparke and writer Paul Butler – who brought us The Creatures Below, Book of Monsters transforms its coming of age tropes into an icky Eighties-style gorefest, conjuring the spirit of Evil Dead II with its own comic diabolism, its practical effects, its Necronomicon-like book of the title, and its hidden toolshed (complete with chainsaw, eventually Sophie’s weapon of choice). The sexual politics, though, are far more up to date, as Sophie’s sapphic inclinations are never exploited for cheap tits-out prurience, and despite the presence of ally Gary (Daniel Thrace) as well as policemen (both fake and real), the female characters here remain very much on top, whether as heroines or villains. - https://www.scifinow.co.uk/reviews/arrow-video-frightfest-2018-round-up-book-of-monsters-heretiks-and-more/